Swedish skier Elis Lundholm first opened up for a transgender athlete to compete
Swedish skier Elis Lundholm will make history as the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Winter Olympics.
Team Sweden announced last month that Lundholm, a natural woman who identifies as a man, is competing in the women’s category of freestyle skiing under current International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines.
Lundholm is also the only openly transgender athlete competing at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics..
The inclusion of the Swedish skier follows the IOC’s “IOC Framework for Nondiscrimination, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Gender Diversity”.
The framework includes a 10-principle approach to each sport’s recommendations that should be considered for eligibility requirements.
“This framework recognizes both the need to ensure that everyone, regardless of their gender or gender diversity, can exercise in a safe, non-violent environment that recognizes and respects their needs and their identity, and the interest of everyone—especially elite athletes—to participate in fair competitions where no participant has an unfair advantage or disapproval,”
Under the current framework, transgender athletes can compete in the Olympics after approval from their sports federations.
In November, reports surfaced that the IOC was considering broader gender eligibility standards that would bar transgender male athletes from competing in women’s sports.
The claims came after a presentation by Dr. Jane Thornton, medical and scientific director of the IOC, who showed physical benefits in men even after extensive testosterone treatment.
However, as of Thursday, the new policy is yet to be officially announced.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the IOC for comment.
Gender guidelines at the Olympics faced scrutiny during the 2024 Paris Olympics, when Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting, who had previously failed gender tests, won gold medals in their weight category in the women’s boxing competition despite a huge uproar.
Khelif emphasized that they were women. Lin has not commented on the controversy since the Olympics ended.
Although the IOC has yet to announce an official policy, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) revised its policies in July to comply with President Donald Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” directive.
The US will host the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
